Letters to Zoe
by theboyfriend-and-theprettygirl
Summary: Since Zoe left to spend the Summer back home in New York, Wade has been trying his hardest to get on with his life while respecting her wishes for time and space. That was until Lemon convinces him that every girl loves to be wooed. So what better way to show her that he still loves her, then copying the play book to her favourite movie, the Notebook? [Set after the Season2 Finale]


He gets the idea one day when he is working at his bar that he owns with Lemon.

She insists on playing_ her_ choice of music over his; because according to her, not everyone in Bluebell, Alabama is _tone deaf_ and wants to listen to contemporary Rock. Or _the devil's music_, as she likes to call it.

Being the control freak that she is, he never puts up a fight.

It's still early in the morning, so there are hardly any customers yet. They have only been open for a bit over two weeks, so time passes by slowly.

Most days he likes to pick on Lemon, just so that he can pass time. He can tell that she is starting to regret going into business with him for fear of it always staying this quiet. She had expected a much better response. She thought that their bar _Lemonade _would get as much buzz as the Rammer Jammer. He tells her it's the shitty music that is keeping people away. Well, that plus the name; but he had no say in that either so he keeps quiet. She thinks collaboration of their names is one the best idea that she has ever had. He begs to differ.

Completely bored out of his brains one day, he catches himself singing along to the lyrics of an unfamiliar song, as he cuts up pieces of lemons and oranges getting them ready for cocktail garnishes.

"Too young… too dumb to realise…that I should have brought you flowers and held your hand."

"Wade Kinsella! Are my ears hearing right? Or am I being deceived?" she asks sneaking up behind him, making him jump a little. "For I thought you said that my shitty music is what is keeping our customers away and yet here I catch you singing along to this amazing song!"

"Just because your music is _catchy_, it doesn't mean that it's any good, Lemon." He says trying to be as manly as possible. "It's still pretty shitty and it is keeping our customers away."

She huffs loudly and spins on her heel quickly to head into the opposite direction without a word. He loves it whenever she's being stubborn. He finds it totally amusing.

xoox

Its times like these that he wishes he had that _stupid_ App Zoe used to talk about all the time that they were dating, that allows you to find out _what_ song is playing by just placing your iPhone near the speakers.

The catchy trash that Lemon played was starting to grow on him a _little_, in particular that unknown song about regret. It had played another two times throughout the day and again he caught himself subconsciously singing along to the chorus whenever it played.

Way too stubborn to go directly to the source and ask Lemon what the title of the song was, he tries to push it out of his mind and busy himself in his work. That lasts for about half an hour before it plays again, driving him totally insane.

"What's the stupid song called, Lemon?" he asks furiously when he has walked over to her side of their bar.

She is fixing up a large floral centrepiece on one of their tables, humming along to the tune of it.

"What song?" she asks, pretending to not have a clue about what he is asking her.

"This _song._" He hisses, so the old man near the bar cannot hear him.

"Oh, you mean the one I caught you _singing_ along to earlier?"

He really hated whenever she played smart with him. He could handle _annoying_ Lemon._ Stubborn_ Lemon. _Whinny _Lemon. But smart, _sarcastic _Lemon he _hated. _

It probably had something to do with, being knocked off his high horse. Belittling him and making him feel genuinely stupid whenever she spoke to him like that. Emasculating his very manhood by teasing and frustrating him, just because she could.

Nevertheless he would _ignore_ it for now. He needed to find out the name of the song and if that meant biting his tongue, then he would do it.

"Yes." He said after mentally counting to ten to calm himself down from sounding like his usual annoyed self. "Will you please just tell me what it's called?"

"You know what Wade, I knew it but I've seem to have forgotten it now and it has stopped playing. Maybe you could sing me a part of it to refresh my memory?" she said laughing a little.

She was getting too much satisfaction out of this and it was driving him insane. But he had embarrassed himself too much to back out now.

"Look, Lemon. I know that you are just lying and I ain't going to sing it and embarrass myself either." He says, his tone of voice starting to sound more like how he usually is, as opposed to his fake, calm, cool and collected earlier version he had put on.

"Sorry Kinsella. I don't know which one it is. You are going to have to sing it."

"Over my dead body, Breeland!" he snaps furiously and walks off without another word or glance to her.

xoox

She comes over to him when he is wiping down his bar. He has scrubbed it so hard and for so long, that he can almost see his own reflection off the clean surface.

"It's called _When I was your man._" She said sighing heavily. "It's by Bruno Mars."

She feels slack to have made me so mad. So she decided to put her teasing on hold for the day and tell him what he so desperately was trying to know. She could tell that he had made a real effort at trying to be as nice as possible. It was something that he did whenever he really wanted something from her; or whenever he was in need of her advice but was too embarrassed to ask her for it. He liked to appear as strong, thick-skinned and macho as possible; but she knew that it was all an act. Today was one of those days and she would sit with him and lend a helping ear.

"What's got you down Kinsella?" she asks, taking a spot on a bar stool opposite him at the counter of the bar.

"Nothing." He says stubbornly.

She is used to having to fight him on the matter for a few minutes before he opens up and tells her the truth.

"I don't know if you know this already, Wade." She says trying another tatic. "But I _know _you a lot better than you think. So why don't you tell me the truth?"

"I'm busy." He says ignoring her offer of help and continuing to wipe down the bar's counter.

"It's clean, Wade." She says placing a hand on top of his quickly to make him stop. "Come and sit with me. You look like you could use someone to talk to."

"I'm fine, Lemon."

"No, you are not."

"Will you just drop it?" he asks snapping angrily. "Don't you have things that you need to do?"

She sighs heavily and jumps off the bar stool. She holds her tongue from saying something mean, because she can tell that he is really hurting about something. She figures it more than likely has something to do with Zoe Hart, so she politely says that she will be lighting candles for the centre of the tables in case he wants to talk to her, in the event that he changes his mind.

Xoox

It took not even five minutes for him to realise that he was the biggest douchebag in the history of the world. He finds her still lighting the candle centre pieces for the table and walks up to her with two glasses and a bottle of tequila.

"I come with a peace offering for being such a dick." He said, pulling out a seat so that she can sit down.

"I guess this means that you are ready to talk, then?" she asks, thanking him for the drink.

"Yes. Lemon, I'm sorry if I was rude earlier…it's just…that song it made me… _sad_ and it-"

"-made you _miss _Zoe?" she asked finishing his sentence for him.

"Yes." He said before downing his shot of tequila and pouring another one for himself.

"I figured." She said, reaching across the table to squeeze his hand. "Have you called her recently?"

"Not since the day that she landed in New York. She said that she needed some space. Some time to clear her head to figure out what she wants."

"You know what I think, Wade?" she asked trying to lift his spirits. "I think you should _ignore _what she said and call her. Let her know that you still care about her and that you miss her."

"That's the thing, Lemon. I've tried. She told me that she would call me when she was ready to talk. It's almost been two months and every time I call, she doesn't answer. I don't think she is ready to talk to me yet. I hurt her pretty bad."

"Yes, you hurt her but she has gotten past that. Didn't you tell me that you guys slept together before she left for New York? She must still have feelings for you to have done that…right?"

"I don't know, Lemon. I think she regrets that."

"But you don't know that for sure, Wade. You need to call her and tell her how much you miss her. You need to tell her how much you love her, because I know that you do and so does all of Bluebell, but she needs to hear it! Women like to be wooed, Wade. They like to be made to feel special."

"I think I am just making the matter worse by trying to call her all the time. She doesn't even reply to my text messages, Lemon. I think I need to give her the space that she needs."

"Well, there must be some other way that you can express your love without calling her, right?"

"Maybe you can write her a letter or send her a present? There must be some other way to make a big love declaration that will show her that you are thinking about her."

"Lemon Breeland, you are a genius!" he said jumping up to his feet. "I have the most perfect idea. I have to go out for a bit. I'll be back soon."

"Wait, what are you going to do?" she called out after him, but he was already gone.

xoox

Zoe always talked about romantic comedies that she loved and couples from movies and tv shows. He honestly wished that he had paid somewhat more attention back then, because this could have been helpful to him today. He was only now starting to realise that sometimes we take so much for granted.

He was sitting at the park, a note pad and pen in his hand, struggling to find the right words to say.

So far all he had was:

_My dearest Zoe._

The words taunted him on the blank white sheet.

Lemon had truly given him the best idea. Zoe might still _need _space to think, and that would explain _why _she was screening his calls; but he could always write to her and do a big love declaration. And that's what he intended to do.

The only thing he remembered about Zoe's favourite movie, The Notebook was that Ryan Gosling wrote a letter every day to Rachel McAdams. Prior to Zoe, he would have no idea who these actors were, but love makes people do crazy things.

Lemon's advice to woo Zoe had him think of the most genius idea. He would write a letter to her each day that she was in New York, just like Noah had done to Ally in the movie; and hopefully Zoe would see this grand gesture and it would touch her heart.

xoox

It was a cold, rainy, miserable day in New York when Zoe opened the blinds to her hotel suit to look out the large windows that overlooked the Upper East Side.

It had rained on and off for the past week and for once in her life, she found herself _actually _missing Bluebell and it's heatwaves and humidity, much to her surprise.

Zoe, picked up her mail from the edge of her bedside table and jumped back into bed. She pulled the plush blanket up to her chest to keep warm and started to flick through the mail, prioritising it via importance to junk mail. She heart stopped quickly when she saw the return address of one of the white envelopes in her hand.

_Bluebell, Alabama._

Zoe smiled and quickly tore open the letter. She had no idea that Lamon was writing to her! He never mentioned so when she called him last night to check in with her best friend.

Her heart sank suddenly when she realised who the letter was actually from. It read:

_My dearest Zoe. _

_How is New York treating you? Is it good to be back home? Have you had a chance to catch up with your mom and all your friends?_

_Everybody here in Bluebell misses you a lot. That includes the Breelands, believe it or not! Brigg really misses the help you provide at the practice and he can't wait for you to get back. Even Lemon said that she misses the drama you cause; I guess that's her weird way of expressing the emptiness that the town now faces since your departure. Nothing really feels the same without you…_

_When are you coming home? Lavon misses your company and he really seems to be in a dull mood all the time. He swore to kill me if this ever got out, but he said the other day that he was thinking of flying up just to see you because he needed "best friend time". Those were his exact words! I guess you have really softened up our Mayor!_

_I,of course miss you the most. I know that I said that I would give you space and I know that you are not taking my calls because you need time to heal. I just needed to say that I'm okay with that. _

_I love you, Zoe. You are the love of my life and I know that what I did to you was the worst thing ever (trust me, that mistake __haunts__ me every day) but if you give me another chance, I prove to you that I will never take you for granted again!_

_You don't have to reply to this letter. I am not expecting to hear back from you. I don't want to pressure you into doing anything that you are not comfortable with._

_But I just needed to tell you what I've been dying to say to you…what I would have said to you over the phone, had you answered my calls.. I hope you can forgive me if I have any way made you upset by this letter, but you needed to hear the truth._

_I love you Zoe Hart. I always have and I always will. _

_Wade x_

_P.S. I figured that hotels don't always have the best selection in movies, so here's something that I know you love. Enjoy! Xx_

Zoe fought back the tears that had started to swell in her eyes. This was so unlike Wade and it was by far one of the most sweetest things anyone had ever done for her. She had never received such a beautiful letter before and coming from Wade, of all people meant that it was a big deal.

Zoe reached inside the envelope and pulled out a copy of The Notebook. It was her favourite movie and she was so surprised that he had actually remembered. All the times that he had made fun of her for wanting to watch it with him. All the times that he had fallen asleep during it. All the times that they would argue whenever she would rewind it to the part he had fallen asleep in, just so that he would not miss a second of the movie came flooding back to her and she started to cry.

She reached into her handbag for a packet of pocket tissues and dried her eyes. She knew in that moment that she had to call him. She needed to thank him for the letter. She wanted to tell him that it was the sweetest thing that anyone had ever done for her.

She started to dial his number and it had gotten to the third ring when she had to hang up abruptly.

"Babe, are you alright?" Jonah asked stepping out of their ensuite bathroom bare-chested, a towel wrapped around his waist.

"I'm fine." She said, quickly throwing her phone into her handbag.

"What's that?" he asked, nodding towards Wade's letter.

"Oh, it's just a silly letter from Lavon." She said lying quickly. "You know the drill…he misses me blah, blah."

"Didn't he call you last night?" he asked towel drying his wet hair a bit.

"Yeah, but you know him! He's a big softie at heart. He sent us a dvd." She said changing the subject quickly.

"Sweet! What is it?"

"My favourite movie." She said holding the dvd up.

Jonah groaned loudly. "He could have sent us something better." He mumbled quietly as Zoe, hid the envelope into her bag.

"So what do you want to do today? It's raining and we don't need to see my mom until four." She said, trying to push the word's in Wade's letter out of her head.

"We could stay in bed and…you know…" he said climbing onto the bed with her.

"Watch The Notebook?" she asked excitedly.

"I had something else in mind, babe." He said.

And before she could protest, before she could fight him off, his lips crushed down ontop of hers in a passionate kiss.

xoox

**Author's Note:**

Hey guys! Not sure if anyone will read this or not, but this is my first ever HoD / Zade story and I would really appreciate hearing what you guys think… So _Please leave me a Review?_

_Thanks!_

_Paris xx  
_


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